Chinese Arts Centre

Unravel Event at Chinese Arts Centre

Trevor Chan — Thu, 03 May 2012 15:57:29 +0000

Event

Unravel Event
Saturday 26 May 2012, 2-5pm – Drop in Sessions

Chinese Arts Centre is delighted to invite artists Maria Anatsassiou, Chris Paul Daniels, OKO Lab of Leeds (Mark Pickles and Jo Byrne) and Kelvin Brown,
all from the Unravel project, to take over our space with their exciting and interactive film event. The Unravel project aims to create a continuous hand painted film, with everything drawn, created by you the general public! This event coincides with our own current exhibition programme, 60-Minute Cinema and we can’t wait to have the Unravel team here!

You can come along on 26 May to meet the artists and become part of history, by adding your own detail to an epic and ever growing reel of film! No need to book, just drop in and take part!

More About Unravel
Winner of the Deutsche Bank Award for Art at the Royal College of Art 2010, Unravel is an epic project that will create a hand painted film that correlates in length with the 874 miles between John O'Groats and Land's End - taking each metre between these two edges of mainland Britain as a ratio to equal one frame of 16mm film.

In collaboration with national film venues, art galleries, community spaces and educational institutions across England, Scotland and Wales we are holding touring workshops aiming to amass an epic sixteen hour film that will be created and manipulated by hand, by a diverse demographic of the people of Britain.

Formed by Maria Anastassiou and Chris Paul Daniels whilst studying at the Royal College of Art, Unravel is also comprised of OKO Lab of Leeds (Mark Pickles and Jo Byrne) and Kelvin Brown.

Chen Man – filmed by Kvision!

Elizabeth Wewiora — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 17:55:28 +0000

Thanks to Kvision for sending through their film of Chen Man's opening night here at Chinese Arts Centre back in February. It was a busy and exciting evening and we are delighted Kvision could capture it on film for us!

Check it out via the link

Image by Chen Man

First Step – Lydia Meiying

Trevor Chan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:45:16 +0000

First Step Showcase

Lydia Meiying
Exhibition: 19 May - 15 September 2012

Lydia Meiying is a Manchester based illustrator and pattern designer who graduated from Leeds College of Art in 2008. She designs patterns and graphics for fashion, interiors, design products and trend forecasting. Her practice focuses on creating bright and bold designs using a mixture of hand drawn and CAD elements. She is drawn to nature as inspiration for her work and often likes to blur the lines between contemporary and traditional Chinese design in her imagery. For her First Step showcase, Lydia will use bright colours that are prevalent in Eastern design and motifs inspired by Chinese culture, heritage and mythology to create a pattern to cover the walls of the stairwell.

Trevor Chan — Wed, 11 Apr 2012 15:35:04 +0000

Main Gallery

Dao Gives Birth to One
Hung Keung
Preview: 5 July 2012
Exhibition: 6 July - 1 September 2012

Hung Keung is a leading contemporary Chinese media artist. For the exhibition at Chinese Arts Centre, he will be presenting an interactive video project Dao Gives Birth to One – the work won the Achievement Award from Hong Kong Museum of Art, as part of the Hong Kong Contemporary Art Biennial Awards 2009 - 2010.
At the root of Hung's work is a preoccupation with the longevity of Chinese culture. In it he questions how human beings in modern day society engage with the ancient philosophical concept of 'Dao'. This project aims to examine the possibilities of relationships between human beings, Dao, and our universe, through the integration of Chinese calligraphy and new media.

The extensive horizontal view created by the multiple screens in this installation is inspired by traditional scroll paintings, with the white background representing the infinite space of endless time. As well as being visually striking, the piece is technologically sophisticated and incorporates specially designed interactive software. With this piece Hung wishes to provide audiences with a unique, refreshing, and contemporary perspective on traditional Chinese philosophy, painting and calligraphy.
In recent years, Hung has participated in many festivals, and been awarded numerous prizes. These include the Best Short Ambient Video Award at the BBC British Film Festival (1998), the Best of EMAF at the European Media Art Festival Germany (1998), and The 3rd International Festival of Film & New Media on Art held in Athens, Greece (2002).

In 2004 Hung founded imhk lab. Its work includes new media art research, interactive software development, application, and production.

The exhibition is being kindly sponsored by the Hong Kong Economic and Trade Office, London and is supported by the Annie Wong Foundation.

China comes to Tameside

Trevor Chan — Fri, 30 Mar 2012 16:44:00 +0000

School Exhibition

China comes to Tameside
Date: 29th March - 13th April

As part of recent collaborations with Jiangbin Vocational School in Hangzhou, China, First Year National Diploma students at Tameside College have been working on a project producing outcomes inspired by traditional and contemporary Chinese culture.

Students from Art & Design and Fashion & Textiles specialisms are currently working hard on visual research and sampling which will soon be transformed into a range of exciting outcomes on display here at Chinese Arts Centre from 29th March - 13th April.

Education Internship Opportunity

Trevor Chan — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 16:48:34 +0000

Opportunity

Education Internship
Deadline: 9 April 2012
Interviews: 12 April 2012, position starts week of 16 April

Chinese Arts Centre is currently looking for two education interns to volunteer with us for one day a week over the next 3 months.

The opportunity will involve working on a new education programme in the centre, developing two high school projects based around Hong Kong film and animation. The position will offer opportunities to develop skills in arts education, workshop delivery, arts administration and marketing.

If you think you may be interested and would like to receive more information please email us for an application pack - opportunity@chinese-arts-centre.org.

60-Minute Cinema

Trevor Chan — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 15:10:07 +0000

Main Gallery

60-Minute Cinema
Preview: Thursday, 26 April 2012, 6-8pm
Exhibition: 27 April - 9 June 2012
Late night screening: 17 & 31 May

60-minute Cinema is a six week changing video programme at Chinese Arts Centre. During this time, our main gallery space will be transformed into a comfortable seating environment specially designed for viewing video.

Three curators Dong Bingfeng, Teresa Kwong and Amy Cheng have been invited to curate a 60-minute programme of moving images. Each of the curated programmes will be presented for two weeks each. The curators are invited to draw on their specific areas of interest and expertise to encompass artists' film, video and animation, from each of their home cities. Due to the difference in history and policy, these three Chinese cities - Beijing, Hong Kong and Taiwan have very different lifestyles, social systems and cultural identity.

Programme Schedule

Hong Kong Programme: Our Home Town
Curator by Teresa Kwong
Screening date: 27 April - 12 May 2012
Total running time: 53 mins
Artists: Jo Law / So Man-yee, Stella / Tsui Ka-hei / Tsui Ka-long / Chan Siu-chung / Wong Cheuk-hin George / Chau Pak-ho / Tsang Tsui-shan, Jessey

China Programme: People's Park
Curator by Dong Bingfeng
Screening date: 15 May - 26 May 2012
Late night screening: 17 May 2012
Total running time: 65 mins
Artsist: Zhao Liang / Cao Fei / Yang Fudong / Jun Yang

Taiwan Programme: Unhomely: Tales of the Island
Curator by Amy Cheng
Screening date: 29 May - 9 June 2012
Late night screening: 31 May 2012
Total running time: 70 mins
Artists: Chien-Chi Chang / Jui-Chung Yao / Chia-En Jao / Jun Yang / Yu-Hsien Su / Chang-Jung Wu

Biography

Amy Cheng is an independent curator and art critic based in Taipei, Taiwan. She has written for journals such as ARTCO, Yishu and Contemporary Art & Investment. She was the co-curator of the Taipei Biennial in 2004, she curated the Taipei Pavilion at the 2011 Venice Biennale, and co-founded Taipei's The Cube Project Space in 2010.

Dong Bingfeng is an independent curator and was previously the Deputy Director of Iberia Center for Contemporary Art and the Chief Editor of Art & Investment, The Independent Critic and ART IN CHINA. He has curated exhibitions on artists’ film at the Beijing Film Academy, The Guangdong Museum of Art, and OCAT.

Teresa Kwong is a promoter, curator, and producer for film and media arts. She is the Senior Programme Manager at the Hong Kong Arts Centre and the Director of ifva. She has been a jury member of various international film festivals including the Pusan International Film Festival, Rotterdam International Film Festival, International Women's Film Festival in Seoul and Vesoul Asian Film Festival.

Life Friendly project

Trevor Chan — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:47:06 +0000

Life Friendly project

Life Friendly Residency 2012
23 April – 5 May
Àgata Alcañiz, Kate Bevan, James Brady, David Haley, Jessica Mautner, Erinma Ochu, Yan Preston and Penny Skerrett

The Life Friendly project explores in a systemic way how artists and arts organisations can redesign their practice to have benign/restorative impact on the natural world and on human quality of life. Developing on from a series of life friendly based events over the past few months, Chinese Arts Centre is delighted to host its second Life Friendly Residency. Last year local artist Yan Preston took on the challenge of steering her arts practice towards a new approach, which in theory would benefit the environment, herself and those around her. Now Yan will return alongside a new group of local artists to explore the themes of Life Friendly once again, but taking inspiration from everything they have heard and seen so far within the project. Expect events, interventions, conversation and maybe even some food!

You can find out much more about the Life Friendly project and any specific dates for events & open studio days during the residency via our project blog www.wearelifefriendly.blogspot.co.uk

This year’s Life Friendly Project has kindly been supported by the Small Change Big Change fund (part of the MCLEF group)

Image credit: Waste Control, Àgata Alcañiz, 2010

Start Education Programme: Film project

Trevor Chan — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:40:17 +0000

Start Education Programme

Film project with
Cedar Mount High and Alder Community High School
26 April – 16 June

We are excited to be delivering another stage of our 9-month education programme with four schools across the region. The summer term takes Chinese Arts Centre out to Cedar Mount High School in Gorton and Alder High Community School in Tameside, as well as bringing over 120 students back into the gallery!

Local artists will be working closely with both schools to create responses to our summer project 60-minute Cinema looking specifically at animation and video work from Hong Kong. Each class will be making their own film through a series of gallery visits, workshops and critique sessions. The final films will be screened in the gallery space for the last week of our 60-minute Cinema programme. We can't wait to see the results!

This project has been supported by The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts through their Start initiative. This initiative provides school students who might not otherwise have the chance, the opportunity to engage with the arts.

Ting-Tong Chang

Trevor Chan — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 14:28:10 +0000

Whisper Residency

Ting-Tong Chang
4 April – 17 April
Open Studio 20 & 21 April

Ting-Tong Chang is a Taiwanese, UK based artist who graduated with an MFA from Goldsmiths, London in 2011. Ting-Tong’s practice combines street art with more traditional elements of painting and sculpture. Ting-Tong often uses absurd objects or visual imagery as a method to open a dialogue about contemporary problems. These core issues include globalisation stimulated by developments in technology, blurred boundaries between nations, consumer culture, and ‘omniscient fear of terrorism’. For his residency here, Ting-Tong will be working with local street artists to explore the role of advertising, and how it plays on our beliefs and consumer desires. He will also be working on a new ‘sculptural device’ which plays around with the idea of upcycling street litter and degradable waste.

Plus Ting-Tong Chang and Chinese Arts Centre staff will be taking part in a one day event with Eastside Projects in Birmingham on Wednesday 11 April. For more information visit http://www.eastsideprojects.org/events/